Be careful when large pieces of teeth fall out! Why is it not as simple as dental implants?

July 23 is World Dry Day.

Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by abnormal lymphocyte activation and proliferation and progressive exocrine gland damage.

Studies have found that the onset of Sjögren's syndrome is caused by the combined effects of multiple factors such as infection, autoimmunity and genetics.

Clinically, the disease often develops insidiously, and the severity of clinical manifestations varies.

Some patients only have local symptoms of dry mouth and eyes, so they go to the dentistry or ophthalmology department for treatment, while some patients have systemic damage as the prominent manifestation.

If the patient has dry mouth, he will often drink water frequently and often need water to take dry food. In severe cases, he may have difficulty eating, flaky teeth loss and multiple rampant caries.

Patients may experience dry eyes, dryness, frosted feeling, and eye congestion. In severe cases, complications such as keratoconjunctivitis sicca, corneal epithelial erosion, corneal neovascularization and ulcer formation may occur, and even corneal perforation and blindness may occur.

A variety of autoantibodies can be detected in the serum of SS patients, and the positive rate of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) is 50%~80%, among which anti-SSA antibodies and anti-SSB antibodies have the highest positive rates and are more specific antibodies for diagnosing SS.

30%-40% of pSS patients develop extraglandular lesions involving multiple systems and organs throughout the body, such as progressive pulmonary fibrosis, central nervous system lesions, renal insufficiency, and combined malignant lymphoma.

Patients should stop smoking and drinking, keep their mouths clean, and rinse their mouths frequently to reduce the possibility of tooth decay and secondary oral infections.

Susceptible population: The prevalence in the Chinese population is 0.3%~0.7%, more common in women, and the age of onset is mostly between 40 and 50 years old.

Once the following symptoms occur for unknown reasons:

Dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, tooth loss,

Recurrent unilateral or bilateral parotid gland enlargement,

Symptoms include dry eyes, blurred vision, dry skin, etc.

And lasts for more than 3 months,

Be especially alert to the possibility of Sjögren's syndrome, go to the rheumatology and immunology department of a regular hospital in time to control the disease as soon as possible.